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Check out our newly created page on Knowledge Sharing, where the Eastern and Southern African Division has compiled a compendium on good practices for Gender Equality within their programs. 

It is a source of inspiration for your programs, and to come forth with your best practices and learning on how to achieve Gender Equality! 

Enjoy! 

From December 1st - 3rd 2020 an online workshop took place on Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (see here for the summary in a nutshell). $


The poverty and well being shareweb has uploaded all the presentation, key insights and documents onto their shareweb. Find out more here. 

 

As so many contributions reached us on gender and migration, we are happy to share with you a second newsletter on the topic. 

Wishing you all a nice rest of 2020 and a good start into 2021. May the new year bring some light and relief after these eventful times.

Find more in the online dossier on gender and migration. 


 

Power relations, gender norms and unequal rights shape the migration choices and experiences of women and men. Gender therefore needs to be considered in all aspects of our work related to migration and forced displacement.


To shed some light on the topic, the SDC Network on Migration and Gender decided to launch a call for contribution on gender, migration and forced displacement. Numerous articles and resources have reached us demonstrating the vivid interest of network members and friends in the issue. 


Enjoy the reading of the first (out of two) newsletters and the online dossier on migration and gender here. 

Beijing +25: A milestone for women’s rights 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the UN’s landmark Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, at which governments from around the world pledged to advance women’s rights and work towards full gender equality.

In this podcast, Gender & Development’s assistant editor Liz Cooke is joined by four women’s rights activists who have written for the journal’s Beijing +25 issue. Together, they assess the impact of the Beijing conference for women’s rights over the last 25 years, the role of the UN in supporting women’s struggles for equality and the likely consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for women’s rights.

 

Violence against women and girls is prevalent worldwide – and the thematic spotlight of this “New Digest”. The COVID-19 crisis in particular has made this clear once again (see the above publications). Violence against women is prevalent in all spheres of life. Please find below publications about violence in economic, political and virtual life:

Employees, particularly women, are disproportionately affected by violence and harassment at work, where unequal power relations, low pay, precarious working conditions and other workplace abuses expose them to violence. The International Labour Organization published two reports about violence against women in the work world. They first published the report “Ending violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work” with a focus on understanding and the prevalence of violence in paid economy. They then released the report “Violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work-trade”. This publication provides a wealth of evidence showing how trade unions can contribute to making real and positive changes in the workplace to protect workers, and especially women, from violence. 

Women also face violence in the political sphere: the UN Women report “Violence against women in politics” from 2018 and the report “Data and violence against women in politics: Expert group meeting report and recommendations” show this clearly. Both reports indicate specific points and in which situations women face violence. The reports also make clear recommendations to reduce violence in the political sphere. 

Violence prevention is crucial and can reduce intimate partner violence. The publication “Innovating to address gender-based violence” from the International Development Innovation Alliance discusses this action point. This publication includes a collection of innovative practices to effectively tackle gender-based violence. It thus serves as a call to action to further develop and scale innovative solutions to address the root causes of gender inequality.


 

To increase its contribution to gender equality in Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya), SDC conducted a Gender Evaluation of its whole Cooperation Strategy. Each priority Domain - Food Security, Health, Governance and Migration/Protection- was analyzed through 3 dimensions: i) the evidence based gender diagnostics for programing (gender analysis), ii) the gender integration in the results framework (indicators), and iii) the gender results achieved. Each Domain has been positioned along the Gender Effectiveness Score, from being gender neutral to gender sensitive, positive and/or gender transformative to assess the scale and nature of the changes obtained and to fix the ambitions. Transversal recommendations for the Management and operational recommendations per Domain were formulated; a follow up action plan was produced to guarantee concrete actions and improvements towards gender equality in the future Cooperation Program. An interesting experience to be shared and adapted by other SDC’s country offices! See details in thelink and here.

 

The Gender Learning Day of 2020 was hosted by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and co-organised by the two backstopping partners HELVETAS and Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG). Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, this year’s event took place online for the first time. The event gathered the SDC’s GenderNet members and gender experts as well as the team member responsible for gender-related issues from Swiss NGOs and the SDC’s partners in Switzerland but this time also from abroad. The main focus of the event was on lessons learned and good practices for strengthening and supporting women’s political leadership in local and national political institutions and processes. Find a complete reporting on this conference here.

SDC Community of Practice on SGBV

The SDC Gender Focal Point of the Humanitarian Aid Department, in collaboration with the Gender Unit has initiated a community of practice on Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The objectives are to 1) share information about global discussions, new research, new tools; 2) document good practices and reflect on potentials and challenges of certain types of interventions through exchange of experience; 3) develop a common SDC approach to working on SGBV. A kick off session with 25 participants was held on 26th of August 2020, when the key learnings of the SDC capitalization on SGBV (2017) were recalled and the global SGBV architecture as well as ongoing initiatives and commitments in humanitarian aid were explained. The session was setting the ground for a series of other virtual meetings during 2020/2021 dedicated to particular SGBV topics, approaches. The last session took place on November 11th and focused on ways of engaging with men and boys.

 

The Gender Focal Point commissioned a feasibility study on roots of impact at the end of 2019 to find out to what extent existing FinTechs are gender inclusive or how they could be persuaded to target more women, and what these enterprises themselves need in order to provide products and services for women. 

The study presents, among other things, 4 different FinTechs, and how these FinTechs can achieve transformative results in the area of financial inclusion of women and how these FinTechs can benefit from an Impact-linked Finance Fund to reach more women and scale their solutions. 

Check out the study.


 

The SDC Shomoshti project aims to provide support to the poor, disadvantaged households and to marginalized women by creating windows for better livelihood opportunities. By ensuring higher incomes and better market access in the targeted areas, Shomoshti project envisions to impact the wellbeing of 180,000 rural households in fourteen districts. With regard to women’s economic empowerment, the project addresses the issues of women’s agency, gender roles / relations and enabling structures, through engagement with various micro-, meso- and macro-level actors. 

The study was undertaken with the objectives- (i) to assess the effectiveness and impact of the project interventions in relation to gender focus areas (decision making, control on income, mobility, distribution of household roles (ii) review the existing gender strategy in relation to scope for scale and sustainability and engagement of the private sector and (iii) to define interventions that the project can undertake 

The findings reveal promising positive change and yet persisting limitations. For example, women are able to generate income and increase the total household income, but this does not necessarily enhance their own spending ability. Findings also show that the private sector is not yet clear about the business case of engaging women traders or producers and female local service providers. This clearly indicates the need to further deepen the engagement with multiple stakeholders. The study provides several recommendations for the way forward. This might serve as a source of inspiration! 



 

In this news digest, the thematic spotlight focuses on the topic of women’s economic empowerment and women’s leadership.. Achieving gender diversity in enterprises is of critical importance for improving business outcomes. Recently, the International Labour Organzation (ILO) has taken up this topic and released various reports on women in business and management at a global and regional level.

The second ILO global report “Women in Business and Management” offers new insights into women’s representation in business and management, including at board level, showing how gender diversity at the top improves organisational performance. The report provides insights into the topics of a gender-balanced workforce and a gender-inclusive culture, emphasising the need for more women in decision-making positions.


Furthermore, through several regional reports (e.g. on Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia and the Pacific), the ILO contributes to the topic of women in business and management at a national and regional level. These reports offer in-depth information on women’s participation in the labour market and bring to the table topics such as women’s leadership (in Asia and the Pacific), education, and the negative effects of crime and violence on women’s entrepreneurship (in Central America).


Additionally, the ILO focuses on inequality between women and men in the labour market. In the 2020 report “Understanding the Gender Pay Gap”, the ILO estimates the gender pay gap on a national level, especially for women and men in management positions. The gender pay gap has been reduced in some countries, while in others there has been little change. The report discusses the causes of the gender pay gap and shows the benefits of closing the gap. Finally, it offers recommendations on how the tackle the gender pay gap in enterprises.


The short article “How to Support More Women in Leadership Roles” from the World Economic Forum (2020) aims in the same direction. The article shows that gender-diverse teams have better long-term performance. A smart graph shows the percentage of women in companies’ boards of directors in different geographical regions and countries. The article recommends closing the women’s leadership gap through top-down commitments to gender equality, skills training and family-friendly policies.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer. In 2015, Adichie was listed among Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People”, and she has won several writer awards. In 2012, Adichie held a TEDx talk in London with the title “We Should All Be Feminists”, which has been viewed more than four million times. “We Should All Be Feminists” analyses what it means to be a feminist and includes personal anecdotes She tells stories from her childhood in Nigeria, like when she didn’t become a class monitor in primary school because of her gender. She calls herself as a happy, African feminist and she talks about feminism, love and home Adichie talks about how to learn gender role expectations and how to learn to break them. Above all, in her stories lies the bright glimmer of a better, more tolerant world. Adichie is a wide-awake observer of our times, and her stories are a literary revelation.


 

Please watch the video on the last FDFA Gender Network Meeting, focusing on the topic COVID-19, gender equality and foreign policy: which challenges can we expect? You can find the assessment and personal remarks by the SDC Director General Patricia Danzi, and the presentation on UN Women’s approach by Christine Löw, the Director of UN Women Liaison Office in Geneva. Further, you can listen to concrete experiences with the pandemic and ways of responding from the offices in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Jordan.

 

Gender Equality is well integrated in Switzerland’s future strategy of international development and cooperation (2021-2024). It is part of the overall objective 4, ‘Promoting peace, the rule of law and gender equality (peacebuilding and governance)’, and closely related with the other respective sub-topics, such as Fragility, Conflict and Human Rights, Democratisation, Decentralisation, Local Governance and Poverty/Leaving no one behind. They represent in their entirety the thematic cluster Peace-Governance-Equality (PGE), a joint effort of the involved 4 thematic units to promote integrated approaches and to strengthen synergies. The ARI / TRI within the PGE cluster complement each other and they add to enhance Gender Equality. 

Gender Equality is explicitly represented in the Sub-Objective 9, ‘Strengthening & Promoting Human Rights and Gender Equality’. The Gender ARI / TRI focus on the SDC strategic priorities Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV), Women’s Political Participation and Empowerment (WPE), and they include aspects of a conducive environment for gender transformative change, such as policy reforms and gender responsive budgeting, reduction of unpaid domestic and care work and supportive behavior by family members. The strategic priorities of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) are measured by gender specific ARI / TRI within the health related indicators and those on inclusive economic development. Further, Gender Equality remains a mandatory transversal theme and is supported by sex disaggregated data in almost all other sub-objectives. For example, in relation to WEE this includes sex disaggregated data on access to vocational skills training and better employment, on access to and use of financial products, on secure land tenure rights and increased income.


This PowerPoint presentation gives you a visualized overview of the Gender ARI / TRI and above mentioned interlinkages.


The list with all ARI and TRI for the entire range of sub-objectives you can find in the SDC guidance on results indicators.

For the third time, the SDC publishes its Status Report on Gender Equality. The report presents the efforts pursued by the SDC and its partners to promote gender equality in 2019. Find the report here!

For the third time, the SDC publishes its Status Report on Gender Equality. 

The report illuminates how the SDC and its partners committed to make gender relations on the ground more equal to the benefit of both women and men in 2019. Go read the report here!

Please read this note by SDC on considering gender in COVID-19 response!

 

According to the "WEF Global Gender Gap Report 2020", the greatest global gap remains in women’s political empowerment (WEP) sub-index, with worrying regressive trends affecting women’s economic participation and opportunity. Although women’s representation in parliaments and executive positions has seen some progress, the overall figures are still low, and even lower when it comes to female representation in leading positions. Furthermore, their political agency is often limited.

These findings are compounded by other disconcerting trends. Many recent studies report an increase in inequality, fragility and declining civic space and media liberty. Where democracy is in decline, we observe the emergence of authoritarian tendencies and impunity, often coupled with a rise in conservatism and a patriarchal backlash. These trends negatively impact women, youth and marginalized minority groups, coinciding with different forms of violence against these groups and a marked regression in women’s economic and political empowerment.

Research and practice indicate so far that when women are better represented, decisions tend to benefit a broader spectrum of society, contributing to more inclusion, cohesion, equity and security. However, what are the conditions enabling or disabling a woman from meaningful participation, representation and decision making in public bodies, be it at communal or national level?

With a capitalization of its experiences (CapEx), SDC wishes to explore this question and to help bridging the information gap related so as to better understand and address WEP in the different contexts and programs it operates in globally. The main purpose is to share lessons learned and good practices based on cumulative SDC experiences to date in strengthening and supporting WEP and gender-responsive approaches in local and national governance and peace and state building processes.

The CapEx is mandated by the Gender Unit at SDC HQ and will be done in collaboration with you and our partners.

Read here about the 2020 Annual Plan of SDC's Peace, Governance & Equality-Cluster and the Gender Unit and Network.

 

The revision of many Cooperation Programmes (previously called Cooperation Strategies) is on the agenda for the next two years. To increase effectiveness and sustainability of a Cooperation Programme and its interventions, gender issues have to be considered from the onset. Seeing the negative trend in SDC's commitments for either gender-principal or significant interventions according to the newest Gender Policy Marker data, the systematic integration of gender during the drafting process of a new Cooperation Programme is a key moment to ensure a gender-transformative project portfolio.

Has your Cooperation Office already started to discuss relevant gender issues for the new Programme? Do you wonder how to integrate the gender perspective and when to start with preparation work? The SDC How-to-Note “Integrating SDC’s Gender Policy into Cooperation Strategy Management” and further documents provide information about relevant gender topics and the process of gender mainstreaming in Cooperation Programmes. Do you still have questions or need guidance? Do not hesitate to get in touch with the SDC Gender Focal Points.

29 October 2019
 

Have fun with Selina Haeny's most favorite cartoon!

 

From 27 April to May 1st 2020, the regional meeting on "Gender and the Psychosocial Approach within Conflict Sensitive Programme Management (CSPM)" will take place in Bogotá, Colombia.

The workshop is organised by the Cooperation Office in Colombia, the Latin America and Caribbean Division at SDC HQ, the Conflict and Human Rights Thematic Network and the Gender Thematic Network with the aim of defining a common conceptual basis for understanding and applying the gender perspective and the psychosocial approach in the context of CSPM.

The seminar will give insights on how the gender perspective and the psychosocial approach can help navigate programmes and projects in contexts of high degrees of polarisation, violence and social crises. The workshop is an opportunity to exchange information on methodological and operational processes. Experiences of different organizations, social movements and scientific institutions in different Latin American countries will be presented in order to promote mutual learning. 

The workshop has two parts: the first two days are dedicated to gender as a transversal theme as well as to CSPM. The remaining three days will discuss the psychosocial approach in development processes. While the first part of the meeting is open mainly to the SDC's Gender Focal Points in the region as well as to the partners of the Cooperation Office in Colombia,  the second part will be open to other interested parties.  





 

This year, the Gender Learning Day 2019 was held as a conference on the topic Women, Peace and Security: Reclaim Prevention! You can find a full reporting on the successful conference here.

 

The How to Note's on Gender Analysis and PCM are also available in French and Spanish! 


Share among your multilingual colleagues!


PCM

Gender Analysis

17 September 2019
 

Are you preparing your annual reports for this year in your cooperation offices? Get some inspiration from this best practice in Niger: visibility, candid discussion on challenges and results of your programmes achievements in gender equality! 

More on Annual Reports and Gender: here.


Préparez-vous vos rapports annuels pour cette année dans vos bureaux de coopération ? Inspirez-vous de cette bonne pratique au Niger : visibilité, discussion franche sur les défis et les résultats de vos programmes en matière d'égalité des genres!

 

In a bid to address the continued decline of female representation in politics in Mongolia, more than 400 people from throughout the country gathered at a Women Leaders’ Forum in June to discuss the challenges and ways ahead. More...

 

Through the "Combating Gender-Based Violence in Mongolia" Project of UNFPA, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Mongolian Government, seven new One Stop Service Centers (OSSCs) have been opened in five provinces - Khuvsgul, Bayan-Ulgii, Darkhan-Uul, Khentii, and Dornod - as well as two districts of Ulaanbaatar - Khan-Uul and Bayanzurkh - within the last year. More...

 

Through the "Gender Corner", SDC Mongolia is sharing examples of gender equality activities in each domain of SDC’s programmes in Mongolia. Stories are presented from project beneficiaries to highlight how SDC's projects contribute to gender equality. 

Explore the corner and its stories, to get some inspiration for your work! 

 

This report presents Switzerland’s contribution in 2018 to achieve gender equality through its international cooperation. The presented project cases show the diverse topics and approaches that the SDC and its partners work on to tackle the manifold gender gaps. They illustrate what progress has been achieved, what changes have been induced and what obstacles women and men continue to face. We aim for transformative changes towards more and lasting gender equality. We wish you a good reading.

 

We are in full speed and preparing the last bits and pieces for the F2F Gender Equality next week in Konolfingen! 

Check out the latest program including indicative timings! 

Everything on the F2F here


You need to have an overview of the program and/or print outs? 

Go directly to the English Version of the program

Go directly to the French Version of the program

 

The Gender Equality Network and the Democratisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance Network joined hands to publish this working paper on Socially and Gender Inclusive Budgeting. 

Read more here.

 

Explore what is going on on International Women's Day at SDC here!


Or enjoy the Blog on FDFA website on women producing chlorine for safe water!


Learn everything on how to integrate gender and Women's Economic Empowerment into Private Sector Development Programmes and improve the outcome and impact of your programmes! 


The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development has developed this useful document for you! Access it now here.

Watch and share the results of the effectiveness report on Gender Equality in three languages: 

For the German Version click here. 

For the French Version click here. 

For the English Version click here. 

You prefer to read? You find your preferred langauge versions on the above links too. 

06 December 2018

Find everything on the Gender Policy Marker here. 


From
25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, the Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign is a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world.

Find more information on the campaign here




 

Find all the presentations and resources from the Savings and Credit Forum on Women's Financial Inclusion: How to reach one billion women? online here

 

In 2007, Switzerland adopted its first National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (NAP 1325). Since then, Switzerland has passed three national action plans. The fourth version of NAP 1325 shows Switzerland’s continuous engagement to promote gender equality in the context of peace and security. 

You can find the fourth version on our FDFA Gender Strategy Page here. 

The Swiss Development Cooperation has published its regular report on effectiveness in the field of gender equality 2007-2016. Gain insights into our programmes and projects around gender equality, and learn about their degree of effectiveness. You can download the report here or watch the summary of the mainpoints here 



Over 30 million women and girls worldwide have been displaced. On the occasion of International Women's Day on 8 March, gender specialist Ursula Keller explainsthe specific risks faced by female refugees and what the SDC is doing to help them.


This manual on gender and economics is intended to provide basic and intermediate level training to development practitioners including governments and policy and programme staff in international development agencies.


New Fact Sheet highlights the importance of CEDAW for SDC ́s work on gender equality and for its human rights-based approach toward poverty reduction.


The 'How-to' note on gender analysis provides a practical guide for conducting a gender analysis. It aims at SDC operational staff and SDC partners in Switzerland and in partner countries.

The 'How to’ guide on PCM focuses on mainstreaming gender in the program or project cycle management.

 

The new checklist for the Gender Policy Marker is now available.

18 October 2017

​Unpaid Care Work​

 

The thematic guidance sheets are part of a series written to support SDC staff in ensuring that gender issues are taken into account transversally in different thematic domains.